Things Fall Apart goes on stage

It is in season now; Okonkwo’s Inquest is a play inspired by Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and it is being staged in Lagos at the moment to commemorate the 55th Independence Anniversary of the nation. The play itself is centred on the life and times of Okonkwo Unoka, the lead character in the book and one whose life did not end on a sound note. It has been noted that Okonkwo was not properly interred to the mother earth. And part of the nitty-gritty of Okonkwo’s Inquest is to continue from where that tragic end of a hero of his people was recorded in the book.

Toju Ejoh is the director of the play and he says the project is a product of Oxygen Koncepts whose basic assignment is to produce plays for public consumption. “Yes, it is a new work and that is why we want to use it to celebrate Nigeria at 55. It is usually very difficult for us to pick a script for the season. It is not that we do not always have good scripts to pick from. But for us this play is symbolic. It is a classical novel known all over the world. It is a book that has been translated into different languages world-over and it is read in most schools across the globe. It is one of the best written novels in the world.”

Now, many people have done works on it; works that have been used to celebrate the book. “Now, it is for us to adapt a part of it into stage to let the world see what the book can demonstrate on stage. It is a pity that no one has gone further to talk about Okonkwo, the man whose role made the book an outstanding work of art. Now, we need to demonstrate his character as a man, his flaws, his brevity, his role in making his people stand out and more. The play has to zero into his place in the book and those issues that led to his death.”

Ejoh, known for his precise character interpretation both as a director and an actor situates the play in a more succinct way:” This is going to be like an inquest, a real inquest demonstrated on stage. Okonkwo was not buried. We do not want to rebury him but we want to know what happened thereafter. You know because he committed suicide, tradition forbids that he be buried properly. Now he was thrown into an evil forest and there is still a story to be told therefrom.” Ejoh said.

Accepting that Okonkwo’s corpse was left like a dog while Obierika and others tried to see what to do to remove his corpse, Ejoh inferred, “now this is Okonkwo in all his glory, who was a common man who rose to the highest pinnacle of his life and career. This was a man who was very resilient and hardworking in his life and now he would be buried like a dog. Therefore, the play is to celebrate those values and then bring these issues to the contemporary times.”

The essence of the play is to highlight hard work and bring to the fore the values of patriotism and love for justice and what is good. “Those leadership values that the country still lacks today have to be pinpointed. Yes, Okonkwo was a good leader, very courageous and brave and proud to be who he was among his people. He was devoted, diligent and fearless. These are qualities of a firebrand leader and this is why we have to embark on this project, using this play as a pivot point.”

In reality, Okonkwo had ample opportunity to back out of the series of scenarios that led to his demise. But he chose to remain to prove that a general does not run away from the battlefront. “But he continued to uphold the culture of his people. Those elements of cultures, to him then, were the height of the civilization of the people. Without those values, to him, the people had no values, had no principles. He was a custodian of those elements of tradition that even his position did not allow him to be lily-livered.”

Some of the pressures that Okonkwo faced are also some of the issues that often lead to our destruction or to our glory. “Yes, these are some of the things we pieced together to get the Okonkwo’s Inquest,” Ejoh surmised. “And so in all, it is a noble concept, away from the central theme of the book itself. The concept of Okonkwo as a big and imposing image in Thins Fall Apart in the play looms larger than life.

In terms of props and costumes and the stage setting, all elements of the Igbo traditions have been brought to bear on stage. The mud houses are to show the period in time and to bring memories of yesteryears back. It is indeed to bring back reality into the play and demonstrate in truth the place of the traditions of the Umuofia community of the days of yore.

The music is also ancient and in consonance with the period. There is a cave and various pathways on the stage, depicting a typical rural place of many years ago. A lot of the signs showed shrines and huts which were rampant in the book. In all, it is a play to watch to bring back memories of a hero who stood for his people.